SECURITY THROUGH DAWAH WORK

The divine promise of the security of Muslims on the performance of dawah work is undoubtedly certain. God’s succour is assured for dayees.

In the Quran, God gives His promise of security to Muslims on the performance of dawah work in these words:

“O Messenger, deliver whatever your Lord has sent down to you. If you do not do so, you will not have conveyed His message, and God will protect you from the people. For God does not guide those who deny the truth.” (5:67)

Many traditions explain the background of this verse. For instance, Abdullah ibn Abbas says that the Prophet of Islam observed, “When God sent me His message, I felt some impediment within me, and I thought people would deny me”. At that time, God revealed this verse. Another tradition tells us that in the early Makkan period, the Companions of the Prophet would guard him. And when this verse was revealed, the Prophet told his Companions to go back to their homes “as God has taken me in His security.” (Safwah-at-Tafasir, Vol. 1, p. 328)

This clearly shows that the secret of security from the people lies in their performance of dawah work. This promise was directly given concerning the Prophet and indirectly given concerning the Ummah of the Prophet.

This is a fundamental reality in the light of which we must see all matters. Whenever the Muslims faced the problem of security from other nations, the reason was that they had abandoned the duty of calling people to God. And when Muslims rise for the call to God, they must be convinced that God will provide a guarantee from all dangers and problems. So, they do not have to do anything on this front. They must do dawah work, and all other problems will be solved independently.

Dawah work means communicating God’s message to non-Muslims. The word ‘dawah’ has been used in the Quran to communicate God’s message to mankind.

The Quran mentions a believer who was a contemporary of Prophet Moses. He had embraced the faith of Moses, but he had not made it public. But a time came when the Pharaoh declared that he wanted to kill Moses. At that time, that Believer could no longer contain himself. He made a whole speech before the Pharaoh and his courtiers in support of Moses.

This was a very delicate matter, for, when the Pharaoh had openly declared his enmity towards Moses, it was certain that he would also deal harshly with the supporter of Moses. But fearlessly, the Believer declared the truth, preferring the truth over everything else.

The Quran, after mentioning this speech of the Believer, has this to say:

‘Thus, God delivered him from the evils they plotted, and a dreadful scourge encompassed the companions of Pharaoh themselves.’ (40:45)

This clearly shows that the call of truth saved the believer from the evil of Pharaoh. The believer possessed only the realization of the truth and dawah work to his credit, whereas the Pharaoh, in comparison, had all kinds of material power. But when the believer stood as a dayee, God’s succour came to defend him. Despite all his power, the Pharaoh could not succeed in carrying out his evil designs.

The divine promise of the security of Muslims in the performance of dawah work is undoubtedly certain. But God will fulfill this promise only with the performance of dawah work. If Muslims are engaged in anything else and call it dawah work, they should never expect God to fulfill His promise in their favour.